Winooski firefighters extinguish flames after a car caught on fire Saturday morning on Main Street. Traffic was diverted for about 45 minutes from Tigan St. To Bellevue St. / Matt Ryan/ Free Press

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Free Press Staff Writer

WINOOSKI — Cyle Chaplin stepped out of the shower Saturday morning, heard a car alarm, peered out the window and saw that his 2008 Mitsubishi Lancer was on fire in the parking lot.

“It was just out of the blue,” he said.

Chaplin, 21, looked on as Winooski firefighters doused the wreckage parked outside his girlfriend’s apartment on Main Street. Winooski police diverted traffic from Tigan to Bellevue streets for about an hour while the fire department cleared the scene.

Chaplin said he had driven up from South Burlington that morning and could only speculate as to what caused the blaze.

“I just recently got an oil change on Thursday,” he said. “I don’t smoke, so it wasn’t that.”

Winooski Fire Chief David Bergeron said the department would conduct an investigation to try and determine the cause. The car’s proximity to the Irving gas station next door did not present any additional danger, he said.

“Not from here,” Bergeron said. “If it was under the (gas station) canopy, certainly there would be.”

The call came into the firehouse, he said, at about 9:35 a.m.

The fire also damaged two cars parked adjacent to Chaplin’s Mitsubishi.

“I guess I gotta call insurance,” Chaplin said. “I hope I can get a new car, because I got a baby, and we gotta go places.”